Latest Pictures of Us...

These pictures were taken at home after our dinner with George, his brother Miron, and Quddus (the photographer), and the last three ones were taken at Horev Hospital.

Update on Menchie's Pregnancy

Twenty-four weeks have now passed, and so it was time for our major ultrasound test in the Rambam hospital in Haifa. Excited and also a little bit nervous (Maarten), we went to the hospital and were able to see our baby for the fourth time.... But this time, we could peek at baby for a little bit longer than during the other visits :) ...

It was so wonderful to see... the doctor took us on a tour of baby's head, arms, legs, and rest of its body! What a miracle to see the little hands and feet move, the heart beat and the mouth drink... It was very moving and left us truly in awe! Here are a few pictures of the event :) ...

Here you can see baby lying on its back, with the head on the left, its arms next to its body and the legs slightly up. Baby is now so flexible that the feet can almost touch the nose... :) ...

Baby is now 650 gram, almost 10 inches tall...and enjoying the space it still has to move around... Every day it is kicking and turning and basically developing its skills which may come in handy with playing football later :)...SO...that will leave you with something to ponder about whether the baby is actually a B or a G :) ...

The next picture is a closer look at baby's face. Now the baby's head is on the right and looking upward...

This is the update for now. We are very happy indeed with this development :)! ...

Santana's Birthday at Tatami Restaurant

Last Tuesday 26 July, some friends went to Tatami restaurant in Moriah St. to celebrate Santana's birthday, our Mexican friend who's wearing pink shirt beside his lovely wife Evelin in this group photo. This was our (Maarten and I) first visit to this Japanese restaurant. Not knowing the dishes on the menu, we relied a great deal on the help of our dear Mr. Japanese himself, Shingo. He recommended some really nice dishes to us, and we truly loved it!

In this picture to the right, Maarten was eating miso ramen. It was delicious, had egg, spinach, tofu on it. The picture below was full of sushis on top of a wooden designed boat. Shingo and Victor ordered these sushis, and it is reported that the boat sailed home with them afterwards... :) j/k.... Each one of us enjoyed the food and company. We will surely come back and try other dishes...he..he!

Maarten's Trip to Kenya

For the first time in two and half years marriage, we were going to be apart for a few days.... Menchie and Martijn took me to the airport, and Friday afternoon at 16.35 my flight left for Addis Ababa.

Just before boarding, I noticed someone with a "The Bahá'ís Magazine", and I asked her if she was a Bahá'í. She had just visited her brother Adib, who is serving at the World Centre, and was now leaving for Delhi. Her parents, on the same flight, were going home to Dar es Salaam (Tanzania).

In Addis Ababa all of us were to spend the next six hours, and so we had some dinner, chatted, and dozed off on the benches in the waiting room. At almost 3.00 in the morning my flight left for Nairobi... After a two hour journey, I arrived in Nairobi, Kenya! My first trip to Africa!! It still felt a little bit unreal, but soon I was met by Joseph Gicheru, who used to serve at the World Centre a couple of years ago. Luckily I was able to sleep for just a few hours before the long meeting day was to start.

Representatives from five countries were in attendance at the meeting, and here you can see the group picture we took on the second day. It was really a very nice group with wonderful friends! From left to right are Willis, from Kenya, Asaph from Tanzania, Daniel from Ethiopia, Moses from Uganda, Kizito from Kenya, Juma from Tanzania, Aimé from Rwanda, and myself from Haifa.

The meeting was very fruitful, and was over all too soon... in just a few days I had gotten a taste of Africa, spent a wonderful time with the friends there, and am now back to Menchie and work in Haifa :)

Parenting Class

I have been wanting to post this picture of our marriage group here in Haifa, so here it is! This was taken last 31 May after our parenting class with Mrs. Bambi Betts, she is from the United Kingdom. We have been studying parenting for quite sometime now and in this evening, we were lucky to have Bambi as our guest of speaker. From left to right, standing: Victor, Bambi, Thomas, Jamak, Negeen, Amelia and meeh; sitting: Martijn, May, Evelin and Maarten (not in the picture are Shingo and Santana).

Cooking and Eating Filipino Dishes...

Last Saturday 2 July, some Filipino friends in Haifa organized a potluck lunch gathering. Corinne Padilla prepared her specialty of "Nilagang Baka" (boiled beef), Daniel Estrada (we also call him Amang) cooked his delicious "Paksiw na Pata" (pork trotters cooked in vinegar), Arnold Laroya made the famous "Lumpia" (Chinese-style eggroll), and I cooked "Menudo" (a stew dish of diced pork, potatoes, carrots with fish sauce and sometimes with sausage or liver) together with Amang. Willi Remollo brought his delicious vegie salad too.
It was a nice, calm, happy lunch time. Some of the friends who joined us were Neva, Corinne Paguidopon, Canan, Kurt, Mrs. Ramirez, Isra, Ria (a Filipina Bahá’í from London cluster who's visiting), Alison (a Bahá’í from Portugal), Anjali, and George who came later. My dear Maarten was not able to join us, but I brought him food at home and he said he liked it!

Maarten's Gardening at Home

Since we have moved to our new home in Hashmona'im in April, we have not taken care of our terrace. Through the help of Kurt in getting some plants and flowers from Yagur, now our terrace is so colorful, but still needs more work. In these pictures, Maarten and Kurt started the work, there we have the bougainvilla, roses, geranium, etc.
Maarten regularly waters the plants and he seems enjoying it a lot. We hope to get more plants soon to finish the work. But for now we are happy seeing nice plants and flowers blooming each day (...and not to forget the beautiful view of the bay!). Thanks for the continuous care of my beloved husband!